Why all the pauses and slow eccentrics? Surely constantly varied, functional movements executed at high intensity is the only way to train for CrossFit success…?

That’s an easy one.

First of all: CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program first, and a sport second

For anyone with even a modicum of common sense, that is a spectacularly banal statement that requires no further explanation, and for that I apologise... Nevertheless, here’s a brief explanation:

Competitions and competitive environments are for people who have mastered the basics: nobody goes into a cage fight without a martial arts background, nobody jumps in off the top diving board if they can’t swim, and nobody performs high intensity, functional movements without first becoming proficient in those functional movements… Or at least they shouldn’t…

Like I said: common sense… Let’s move on.

Why all the pauses and slow eccentrics?

All athletic movement is dynamic, and all dynamic muscle action can be broken down into three phases or types of contraction:- Eccentric: the deceleration or lowering phase- Isometric: the stop and reversal phase- Concentric: the acceleration phase

The key to improved sport performance is producing more force in less time - essentially, it’s all about improving the stretch shortening cycle. If athlete A can absorb and control more force eccentrically at a higher velocity, stop it and reverse it faster than athlete B, then athlete A can accelerate faster, producing more power.

The trick to creating more powerful athletes then, is to become more proficient in the three phases of movement, or, the three types of contraction...

As an extra bonus, breaking the movement down makes it much easier to spot flaws in various movement patterns, and huge, gaping holes in an athlete’s game / programming.

I don’t want to bore you to tears - I’m well aware my enthusiasm for this stuff is shared only by a handful of people that are scattered across the globe - so I’ll keep it as brief and as CrossFit related as possible: let’s look at the peg board in the 2015 and 2016 CrossFit Games.

Here were athletes capable of completing high volume, weighted, kipping pull ups (Murph, event 5, 2016) with ease, and yet the majority of the girls and half of the men were crushed by the limited isometric demands and the neutral grip of a simple vertical pull - a peg board…

Here is where we return to proficiency in these functional movements…

Competency in the concentric phase of a vertical pull is not enough… It is not enough to keep shoulders healthy in the average adult population, it is not enough if the average adult ever wants to compete at any sort of level in the future, and it certainly isn’t enough if you want to be crowned “The Fittest On Earth”.

At Blackbrook, competency in isometric and eccentric phases of the vertical pull are trained weekly. Without a solid foundation of these, higher velocity movements like kipping pull ups are simply out of the question because you have zero proficiency / strength / control through the movement.

Don’t get me wrong, Games athletes are strong A.F. And no doubt they possess immense strict pull up strength in the concentric phase… But that isn’t what the peg board tested… Constantly varying the type of vertical pull is the only way to avoid stagnation, overuse injuries and boredom, while ensuring the athlete is prepared for anything life throws at them… Peg boards included... There are many variations on the grip alone: supinated, pronated, neutral, false, fat bar, rope, switch, wide, narrow, cambered, thumbless, fingertip, etc

[As a side note: I’m predicting a farmers walk by in, then a fat bar ground to overhead and rope climb couplet as an event in the 2017 games… #GripAsaurusRex]

Combine that with a rotating set and rep scheme, an alternating focus on the types of contraction, and the addition of sport specific skill work like muscle ups and kipping pull ups, and the options you have for developing strong, bulletproof athletes are near limitless... Below are 4 examples… ​

This rotating system will strengthen the vertical pull, keep the shoulders healthy, and keep members interested.

It will not yield visible results in 3 weeks… A program that does is largely neurological - you became better at that one movement from the extra practice, that’s all, not because you got significantly stronger… What I offer is a system designed to generally physically prepare the athlete for the unknown and unknowable. A system designed to promote health, increase performance and bulletproof the athlete for the long haul.

Let’s look at another example of why I include pauses and slow eccentrics:

Ever seen a CrossFitter do high rep deadlifts or Olympic lifts?

Spoiler alert: they drop the bar...

They either drop the bar or show zero control on the way down. This means they get the benefit of the concentric, but not the isometric or eccentric phase. More importantly, they only perform and therefore only get better at one third of the lift. This is a problem.

We can all agree the hamstrings play a role in hip extension, but the hamstrings primary role is actually to act as a decelerator and breaker, and provide stability from the glutes through the knee and calf, achilles, ankle and foot. Failure to train the hamstrings properly - not respecting its true function - means the foot has to work way too much… So ankle issues and a weakening of the achilles tendon… Just look at what happened to Julie Foucher during the deadlift and box jump couplet…

The box jump was how she blew her achilles, but the reason why she blew it was because she had no hamstrings…

We need the hamstrings long, strong and capable of stability; this means we need Romanian deadlifts (RDLs), single leg RDLs, Good mornings, Glute-Hams, Jefferson Curls, etc, all with controlled eccentrics and isometric holds... With longer, stronger hamstrings, we can then look at improving ankle range of motion and stability, and once that’s in place, box jumps will pose little, if any threat.

[Side note: do you know what else amazes me about the Julie Foucher incident? That she kept competing that weekend, just wearing a moon boot… Doesn't that strike anyone else as completely ****ing stupid? You know what, I'm not even going to go in to it.]

To recap, controlled pauses and eccentrics will do the following:

- Allow us to isolate and train the individual phases of dynamic movements- Allow us to easily identify flaws in movement patterns- Improve acceleration and power - Develop proficiency through the whole movement- Train muscles with respect to their true function- Help bulletproof the athlete and keep them healthy

And that’s why I program pauses and slow eccentrics… You Blackbrook guys are in good hands.